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Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Split With Alaska

After the losing skid reached five and the unbeaten streak reached seven with a 4-3 loss to Alaska on Friday night, the Wolverines were finally back in the win column on Saturday. Alex Guptill scored less than a minute into the extra session to give the Wolverines a 1-0 win.

On Friday night, PDG gave the Wolverines a 1-0 lead 2:47 into the contest. Alaska would tie the game in the middle of the first period just after a power play ended, and Michael Quinn and Colton Beck scored 7 seconds apart in the middle frame to give Alaska a 3-1 lead. Moffie cut it back to one just over a minute later. Beck scored again 5 minutes into the third. David Wohlberg cut it back to one with about nine minutes left to play, but despite a 17-5 shot advantage in the third, Michigan was unable to capitalize again.

Serville had maybe the best game of his Michigan career statistically, with 2 assists and a +3 rating. PDG had 1-1--2 and was +2. Greg Pateryn blocked 6 shots on the night.

The loss dropped Michigan to 10th place in the CCHA.

The next night, the Wolverines seemed to be in danger of seeing their winless streak extend to 8. After 60 minutes of play, the score remained 0-0. Guptill scored unassisted on a deflected shot just 57 seconds into the extra frame to give Michigan a much-needed win. That was Guptill's team-high sixth shot on goal of the night.

Shawn Hunwick made 25 stops in the victory. The Wolverines were unable to solve Scott Greenham on their first 41 shots of the night, but #42 was the winner.

The power play was scoreless on 8 attempts on the weekend (including a 5-on-3 that lasted an entire two minutes on Saturday), but the PK was perfect on 8 Alaska attempts and killed off a Brennan Serville boarding penalty late in the third of the scoreless contest).

The win pulled Michigan back into a tie with Miami for eighth place in the CCHA. They are only five points out of 4th, however. All the teams in the CCHA have played the same number of games, with the exception of FYS who has two games in hand on the field (and currently sits 3 points ahead of Michigan).

FYS is the next opponent on the slate. The teams will play at Yost on Friday night (on Fox Sports Detroit) before heading to East Lansing is a whore for Saturday's game, which will air on the Big Ten Network, who finally decided to stop being useless from a hockey perspective.

The Wolverines will have to do it on Saturday night without PDG, who will be attending Canada's World Junior Championships tryout camp. Several familiar names were on the 29-man list of Team USA's preliminary roster, which will be later cut to 22: Jon Merrill and Jacob Trouba (who is listed as Jake) made the list. It appears the USA goaltending duo will be former Wolverine commits. Both Jack Campbell and John Gibson are on the roster with Andy Iles listed as the emergency goalie.

In other news, according to the official Twitter account of the Hamilton Red Wings, commit Spencer Hyman was named to the OJHL All-Star Team. Hyman has 2-10--12 in 17 games this year.

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"A small but enthusiastic group of Michigan fans chanted, "Titus sucks! Titus sucks!" When he was off the ice, the group chanted, 'We want Titus! We want Titus!'"
-USCHO

"Though Michigan’s student section is endlessly harangued for its vulgar language, the Yost rowdies can be counted on for at least one good laugh every season. The most recent gem, directed at Northern Michigan goalie and Finnish native Tuomas Tarkki, was a hand-lettered sign wielded by a fan sitting in the front row near the Wildcat bench. The message? The Finnish phrase ‘Tarkki on seula’, which, roughly translated, reads ‘Tarkki is a sieve’."
-Inside College hockey